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Just as last year, LIV Golf is in Florida the week before the Masters. Brooks Koepka won the LIV Golf Orlando and was then involved in a memorable duel with Jon Rahm at Augusta. Almost as memorable was Phi Mickelson’s final round 65 which enabled him to finish second alongside Koepka that week. Playing the week before a Major isn’t every player’s favourite preparation, but it clearly worked for the LIV Golf players last year. There will be 13 LIV Golf players hoping for a similar carryover this year. The players will compete on the Blue Monster course at Trump National Doral, the venue for the Doral Open on the PGA Tour between 1962 and 2006 and then a WGC event between 2007 and 2016. It has also hosted the season-ending LIV Golf Team Championship in each of the last two years. The Blue Monster course underwent a major redesign in 2014 under Gil Hanse and will measure 7,701 yards in length this week. Alongside its length, its main defence is the water that features on almost every hole, made more difficult by the cross-winds that are a regular feature in Miami at this time of the year. Despite the primary focus of this week’s interviews being the Masters next week, those questions about this week confirm the nature of the course. In Koepka’s words, “I think it's the first big boy golf course we've played this year. You know, you've got to be able to ball strike it out here and this golf course doesn't really let you. If you miss your target by four or five yards out here, you can make bogey out here very quickly, double. It's a tough golf course, and you've got to be able to ball-strike it here.” Joquin Niemann also confirmed this: “it's one of the first courses we play that you've got to hit it good from everywhere in your game. You have to hit it long and you have to hit it straight.” With the proviso that the Team Championship here for the last years has been a match play event played at the end of the year and that the last Tour strokeplay event here was eight years ago, here are a couple of angles that can be used this week. Angles to consider: 1. Tee-to-green is all-important at Doral This particularly holds since the 2014 Hanse redesign. In both the 2015 and 2016 events, the top-3 on the leaderboard all ranked inside the top-3 for strokes gained: tee-to-green that week, while none of them ranked inside the top-10 for strokes gained: putting. This verified the above quotes about this being a ball-striker’s course and one in which a bad score can be recorded very quickly before the greens are reached. 2. Not competing next week should be an advantage Koepka winning the LIV Golf event in Orlando and finishing 2nd in the Masters the following week is the obvious riposte to this angle, but none of the other players in the top-3 in Orlando were playing at Augusta the following week (Sebastian Munoz, Dean Burmester). Mickelson did finish 2nd in the Masters having played in Orlando, but he had finished 41st in that event. The primary focus in the interviews this week has been the Masters and each player’s preparation for it. That can quickly lead to a change in focus, particularly as they are competing on a much tougher course this year prior to the Masters. Koepka may once again prove to be the exception, but this angle should hold true far more often than not. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players has been selected. Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen has been in impressive form over the last few months. He won back-to-back events on the DP World Tour (co-sanctioned with the Southern Africa Tour) in December and then he finished runner-up in consecutive events in February-March (International Series Oman and LIV Golf Jeddah). Not the longest off the tee, his game is very much focused on control and that should work well this week. Even though the course was lengthened in 2014, he still finished 6th and 14th in the last two years that this course was used on the PGA Tour. And, as with the other selections, his focus will solely be on this event rather than next week’s Masters Tournament as he didn’t receive an invite and won’t be competing for the first time since 2008 (he lost out in a playoff to Bubba Watson in 2012). Charles Howell
Howell is another very strong player tee-to-green who has been in good form this year. In his four LIV golf starts this year, he has three top-8 finishes. With top-20 finishes in each of his last two starts at Doral, he could add to his LIV Golf win last year. Paul Casey
When the focus is on tee-to-green play rather than putting, Casey is worthy of attention. He has two top-5 finishes in the four LIV Golf events this year, including a playoff loss last time out when he lead the field in greens in regulation. Since then, he has finished 6th in the Singapore Classic on the DP World Tour to show that his game is still in impressive state. He secured his third top-10 finish at the last PGA Tour event held at Doral so he also has a good history on this course. Tips 0-3; -6.00pts 1pt e.w. Louis Oosthuizen 22/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 7th 1pt e.w. Charles Howell 40/1 (Spreadex, Sporting Index 1/5 1-2-3-4-5) 14th 1pt e.w. Paul Casey 28/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 43rd
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